Author DiTullio keeps it simple in book about business

Thursday

Keeping things simple amid a full-time job and a family is a difficult task. Add in speaking engagements and writing a book and the task seems almost insurmountable.

Keeping things simple amid a full-time job and a family is a difficult task. Add in speaking engagements and writing a book and the task seems almost insurmountable. But one Cohasset mother is managing to keep all the balls in the air, stay sane and enjoy life.

Lisa DiTullio is the working mom who is balancing it all. The title of her first book “Simple Solutions” is also the key to how she does all the things she has charged herself to do. It’s the blueprint to her successful career as the current director of project management at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the secret to her multi-tasking lifestyle.

Her self-published book is geared toward business-minded individuals looking to inject simplicity and efficiency into their businesses, whether they are large or small.

In a straightforward style, the book based on examples and case studies of the business and corporation DiTullio knows best — Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

For 18 years, DiTullio has been an employee at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in a variety of positions. It’s her current job as director of the Project Management Office at Harvard Pilgrim that gave her the basis to write her first book.

While many dream of writing a novel that will become the next must-read on the New York Times best-sellers list, DiTullio set out to write a business book based on her corporate experiences and philosophies.

For the last two years, she began speaking at corporate meetings and conferences on her strategies to keep project management uncomplicated.

“Through audience reaction to what I was saying during speaking engagements, I realized there was really a story there to tell,” DiTullio said.

So she set out to write a book, “but, of course, I had no concept at all of what that meant,” she said. To accomplish her goal, she saw her project through from soup to nuts — writing, editing, formatting and publishing.

With the publishing of the book, she set clear goals for her end result. She wanted to become recognized as a thought leader in the project management world and attract more speaking engagements.

Last January, she began the time-consuming process of writing. With five children between the ages of 10 and 18, she leads a pretty busy lifestyle like most working mothers. Finding time to devote to writing a book was a challenge.

“The philosophy I talk about in the book, I applied to this project,” she said. By dividing it into smaller, manageable chunks, she was able to make significant headway in a matter of months. She carved out time to work on the book by going into her quiet office in Quincy to write on Saturdays.

Although she says she was never one who loved to write, a bout of writer’s block never hit her.

“It poured out, I never was sitting at a blank computer screen,” she said.

In addition, she was fortunate to have an understanding husband and children,

“I made it clear this was something I really wanted to do and no one ever made me feel guilty because of my choices,” she said. She dedicated the book to her family and her parents.

As an added bonus, she said, her children were able to see just how much they could accomplish if they set their mind to something.

In the short span of four months, DiTullio finished the first draft of her book, then spent the next two months editing.

“The hardest thing is knowing when to be done,” especially for a self-described perfectionist like herself, she said.

Following the methods set forth in her book, she had set a firm deadline for the book to be complete. She wanted to have it ready and available at a November Project Management conference in Anaheim, California. With a week to spare, her books were available for purchase at the conference — they sold out within the first day and a half of the weeklong conference.

DiTullio said people gravitate toward her philosophy of keeping it simple, “some of the things I write about are so obvious but so often people need to be reminded to keep it simple.”

Her book outlines how a business, no matter what the size or trade, can introduce successful project management. By maintaining a simple recipe, with simple requirements and standards in place, the project leaders do not burden the team with complexity. A chapter is devoted to how to build cohesive project teams in today’s corporate world.

DiTullio is already thinking about writing another book about how her project management philosophies can come out of the boardroom and into day-to-day life.

“Business and life can be overcomplicated and run at high warp speed. My approach is to give (readers) simple reminders to keep things simple to maintain sanity and get it done,” she said, “keep your eye on what needs to get done and keep a steady pace.”

“My life is very full, very rich, very busy,” she said. “Whatever is embedded in book is what I live by. I apply it to my day-to-day life and I still manage to have fun doing it.”

“Simple Solutions” is available in hardcover and paperback online at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and at any bookstore by request. To find out more about Lisa DiTullio visit www.lisaditullio.com.

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